


Blank

by NorthoftheNorth



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 16:16:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16747330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthoftheNorth/pseuds/NorthoftheNorth
Summary: Arthur tried to think of who the boy was, but nothing came to mind. No matter how familiar he seemed, all he could come up with was a blank.





	Blank

**Author's Note:**

> Arthur decides to teach Mathew what it is like to be human before he gives Mathew any responsibilities of his own as a nation. This comes before Mathew becomes a nation in 1867. He wipes Mathew's memory of being a nation, and gives him false memories of being born and raised in a wealthy noble family.
> 
> Then he establishes him in an upper-class family to match Mathew's memories before he wipes his own memories of having Mathew as a colony. He gave himself the memory of having gone to the family he dropped Mathew off at for a meeting of no real importance for later on. Sees a figure in one of the windows. The figure had wavy blond hair that went down to his chin with one stray curl that went out in front of his face. Arthur briefly had a flash of annoyance at the messiness it gave the boy's looks. If there was one thing he hated, it was someone without manners enough to tidy their self up. He looked at the person's face and felt a flash of remembrance. He knew that face. He definitely knew that face. And, for a split second, he recognized it.
> 
> Then his magic kicked in, and he berated himself mentally for imagining things. He blinked once more, and looked again. Nothing. He must have been mistaken. He didn't recognize the man. He was a new face he'd never seen before with no past memories to connect them. His name drew a blank. His face drew a blank. He was just that. A blank. Someone he didn't know anything about, and someone he didn't necessarily want to know anything about. Arthur shrugged, and waved goodbye to the figure, then he left. There was no sense hanging around the man's home and staring at him like some stalker.
> 
> After all, he was a gentleman. And an English one to boot; the very best.
> 
> ..............................................................................................................................................  
> Additionally, Mathew's fake memories compel an almost feverish loyalty from Mathew for his new mother. He remembers nothing of being a nation and now his every thought is set to making his "mother" proud of him. She herself though is a social climber.

Arthur couldn't remember what it was, but he knew that he was forgetting something. He had been standing in his study, in front of the big glass windows which ran the breadth of the room across from his desk and that looked out over his spacious countryside lawn, and trying to remember what it was he had forgotten. He knew it had to do with Mathew, Canada, he had finally figured that out after the first hour of staring out at the lawn, and his beautiful little garden, but he couldn't remember what it was until finally, he got it. He strode over to his desk and yanked on the bell-pull. A maid scurried into the room moments later and curtsied then stood ready.

"Fetch Mathew," He ordered.

She nodded and left.

Arthur had forgotten to teach his most important lesson to Mathew. It was to be expected, of course. Mathew was now one of his oldest colonies and with Alfred...gone, well, he had let his duties as his colonies reigning teacher and nation slide...a bit. Well, actually, a lot. It was deplorable really.

Arthur sighed, and a new fire lit in his vibrant green eyes.

Arthur was going to teach Mathew what it is like to be a human. Literally. It would be a grand learning experience.

Mathew would need the experience to bond with his people properly, after all, and Arthur wasn't in the exclusive Magic Club for nothing. It was pretty much his duty as Canada's colonizer to do this, as far as he was concerned.

The door opened and Arthur turned around to face it.

"Mathew," Arthur stated as Mathew arrived in his study. "It appears I have neglected to teach you a lesson."

Mathew awkwardly shifted around and played with his hands, a nervous habit he had thought he'd broken Mathew off of. "Have I done something wrong, sir?"

Arthur sighed again and his eye twitched as he noticed that one of Mathew's irritating behaviours had reared its ugly head and snapped, "Stop playing with your hands."

Mathew snapped to attention.

"Better." Arthur's vivid green eyes regarded Mathew coldly. "I expect to see you in my magic room in an hour. Now, leave."

Arthur tripped and stumbled on his way out of the room as he hastily tried to leave both quietly and swiftly. An impossible feat for his recently grown body. He was pretty much the equivalent of a human teenager right now. He only barely looked eighteen! Such a young nation.

But Arthur was pleased.

That stumble, no matter how much of it was due to Mathew's ill-fitting and still growing limbs, had boosted his own ego. Because it meant something important. He had made Mathew nervous. Mathew still feared and respected him.

And, THAT, was very very good.

As his colonizer, he had to be respected. Especially with the recent developments around America claiming Independence. As the power in charge, his position was fragile right now. Hopefully, this lesson would help fix it.

Maybe Mathew would even confess to some small wrong doing of his that he had missed and that he could still get after Mathew about before he had to wipe his memories and sent Mathew off to be a human for a few good solid months.

Ahhhhh, he was pretty much a genius.  
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................  
A month later, Mathew was being fitted for a suit for an upcoming ball arranged by his "mother."  
________________________________________  
"This is what it feels like to be distinguished, Mathew. How do you like it?"

Mathew had nodded eagerly, smiling gratefully. After all, he truly did love his mother. She was everything to him. After all, she was all he had left now that his father had died. Plus, she was the entire reason why they hadn't been tossed onto the streets after father's death.

Everyone knew that women do not deserve to earn property. Yet, because of the status she had so skillfully gained at court and at every grand ball. How she hadn't messed up once. She had been perfect, wearing a new dress to every event, acting perfectly demure like a true high lady, yet had still been devious enough to interest everyone and have sooo many secrets spilled to her. She had saved them through her actions. That simple.

He must do whatever she wished. It was only fair. He had to repair her for her tireless efforts to raise him well, after all, even if said good upbringing could hurt or be an annoyance, such as now.

Mathew instinctively suppressed a wince when a pin stuck him in the leg. Why was his mother insisting on such a form-fitting suit? He sighed, again. It was a daring kind of fashion statement, and he had never been very good at pulling those off. All he could be thankful for was that he was not female and expected to wear an especially revealing décolletage...he wasn't too sure if he'd have been able to pull it off if he was.

Not to mention how critical it would be, both in that fictional world or for him right now for him to make a grand entrance. This was pretty much his debutante, his entrance into respectable society. He must look his best, and he also must be the best there. He had to.

His mother demanded it, and he needed to meet those wishes. She was his everything, after all.  
________________________________________  
Arthur had to admit it to himself. That boy across the room looking so nervous to be there, with a little blond curl having escaped from the tiny violet ribbon holding back the rest of his hair, and matching his eyes perfectly, and bobbing in front of his head as he shyly stayed stuck to that single spot with his eyes either darting around the room in an anxious fit or staying glued to the floor, was simply ravishing.

And Arthur briefly entertained the thought of kissing the man. Thoroughly. And deeply.

But, no matter how brief the fantasy was, Arthur always got what he wanted, and with his status in society, it wasn't like the boy could really refuse him, even if the boy ended up balking at their both being males or not.

Now, who was his mother again? Ahhhh, yes.

Her. The Tiger of the Social Circles. 

Oh, this was just perfect. That woman was always so eager to ascend the social ladder. He could always reassure her that there would be no whispers of scandal for his actions, so long as she fully gave him the boy.

How simply wonderful would that tall blond boy look in one of his servants' extra butler uniforms? He could even be his personal butler, perhaps.

When the courtiers standing by him started to shiver and scooch a tad bit farther away from him, Arthur ignored it and kept smirking.

He was a genius.

And, better yet, he was a genius who always got what he wanted. After all, he was THE Arthur Kirkland. The unspoken but fully known trusted advisor of all the politicians and government officials of the British Empire. Everyone who was anyone knew that. And that was something that he could take full advantage of, and did.

It was a pity that the nations never could tell who they really were, what it meant, or what (or rather, where) they represented; but, of course, that had never stopped him from gaining his rightful place within his own society. He deserved to be at the top, after all. Even if the other Nations ridiculed him for being the Black Sheep of Europe. That didn't matter. He was adored by his humans, and waited on nearly hand and foot when he was away from those idiots that called themselves his peers. 

The humans knew, and the other Nations would soon come to realize; Arthur Kirkland always got what he wanted.  
.................................................................................................................................................................................  
..............................................................................................................................................  
Arthur couldn't shake him from his mind. That's what it boiled down to, at least. 

After the ball, he'd kept on thinking about the blond and enquiring delicately into how exactly he could manipulate the delicate looking violet-eyed blond. It was during that time, after being informed of the business ventures the blond's family operated that he'd realized he'd seen the other at another point in time. He was firm that he didn't know the blond he'd seen in the window from before the ball. Maybe he'd seen him around before even that, but he felt that it was more, much more, and yet he was also completely sure that he didn't know the man personally. Or at least, he didn’t know him yet. At the same time, he just couldn't shake the feeling he knew, and wanted to know, the pretty blond more than as just another human possession to be used.

Quietly, he'd resolved to himself to fulfill that wish.

Too soon, he had the opportunity to act on that feeling.

The Evergarden family was hosting the season start ball. Held as the first season ball after the debutant send-off, it was yet another that simply everyone had to go to. It would have been the highest social disgrace to not be invited, so the room was packed with the latest fashions, low enough to twitter (hypocritically so) at extremely dipping necklines, (as if those twittering did not themselves sport the same style), and the best beaver felt hats.

Despite the number of people there, Arthur immediately saw the one person he'd kept thinking of near constantly the past two months.

What was he to do? Now that the moment had come that he could talk to the young man, he had no idea what to say.

Nevertheless, he found himself moving forward towards him and the woman he was staying by, the boy's mother he believed.

Just as he got close, the woman waved closer a young woman who looked about the age he himself seemed to be, and about the age of the boy.

Instantly, he was filled with rage, and he had no idea why.

Maybe it was the indignity over him now having to reroute his destination?

That had to be it. He couldn't think of why else he'd lose his calm so easily.

But still, he couldn't shake the feeling that had erupted as he saw the girl brush her hair back and smile daintily at the man he'd been going towards. She giggled, and hid her laughter behind a hand when he said something and smiled at her and her mother, and even without the rage he felt, Arthur knew that he was furious at the girl for flirting and at him for flirting back, and he didn't know why.

Feeling that he needed to think about this, he turned around and swept for the garden terrace, brushing off Ivan Braginsky when the nation of Russia tried to signal to him to talk. Mouthing simply back to him that they could talk later.

Distantly, Arthur felt that he should feel concerned over how the large Russian must have seen him looking at Mathew Williams, but he also didn't care, not over the feelings he had burning through him, and threatening to break his famous icy control.  
..............................................................................................................................  
Ivan felt curious. That was the closest emotion he felt that could describe what was coursing through him and turning his focus solely onto his fellow Nation, that arrogant blond green-eyed spitfire that was always so aloof to everyone else. Aka, "the Black Sheep of Europe." It was curious. Normally the blond acted like he couldn't give the time of day to anyone, and so Ivan obliged him because the blond simply did not deserve him either, as far as he was concerned.

But that behaviour he'd displayed at the ball last month was interesting. So, he may or may not be currently well…stalking the other to see what the other's interest was in that mere human.

He'd seen the flash of desire in the other's eyes.

Of course he had needed to look into that. The other so rarely took up lovers or others who could become close enough for anyone to manipulate, and if Ivan was truly the first to find this new weakness of England's, why it would be pure negligence of him to ignore such a perfect opportunity.

So, he went to find the blond violet-eyed man that England had been eyeing up.

It was ridiculously easy to gain access to the other male's residence. Particularly as he, as with most Nations, had a more human side, and his business was doing rather well, if he did say so himself.

The other man's step-father had welcomed him in with metaphorical open arms, and an invitation to tea. He essentially got to wine and dine the blond, who did show up to the dinner Ivan was invited to, perhaps even before Arthur could strike and set his own fangs into the man.

Even before the other had entered the room, he had stiffened as he suddenly felt something he should not have. Not in this human home…not unless England was here to "see" that blond.

Then he'd gotten a shock, just as he'd convinced himself that Arthur must be in that house and coming to dine for it was simply impossible for him to feel THAT without that as an explanation. For, just as he'd started to relax again, that blond had walked in and he couldn't deny to himself that the feeling he'd felt was coming from the blond. He had immediately reacted to the other. His eyes snapping up to latch onto the pretty violet of the other and locked there, evaluating. The Nation power he felt from the blond was, quite obviously, bound. And, apparently, undetectable to the man himself who must have had his instincts suppressed for him not to recognize how Ivan himself was a Nation, but it was undeniable. The blond was a Nation. And one that had gotten their powers sealed, and, somehow, thought themselves to be human.

Impossible.

Ivan looked down at the tea set out in front of himself to hide his smirk.

Now he knew why England was so interested.

Now the only question to be answered was whether the emerald-eyed man knew exactly what had caught his interest or not. Because he knew that, while he may have recognized that the other was a Nation, whether they themselves knew it or not, Ivan honestly didn't know if any other Nation coming in to contact with them would recognize the same. He knew, realistically, after all, that he was far more perceptive to picking up what the Nation aura felt like. He'd needed to in order to sense his enemies coming near, and he had always been "far too paranoid," according to the others. Even more so than one of the most paranoid of them, besides him. Aka, England. The closed-off emotionless island lion that was so prone to both violence and subterfuge.

So, it was likely that if anyone else out of the Nations would be able to sense this admittedly rather attractive male sitting across from him as one of their own besides him…it would be Arthur. But, had he?

**Author's Note:**

> Interested? Weird? Keep going? Suggestions? I'm all ears ;)


End file.
